How to Get Traffic to Your Blog – OTHER than Google

When it comes to website traffic, Google was king for years. We all know it, we all fell for it – there are very few bloggers I know that weren’t at least 50% reliant on Google. Personally, most of my sites were 75-80% reliant on Google despite my best efforts to diversify to other traffic sources.

But as the king giveth, the king taketh away – Google has brought down the hammer on small publishers in the past year, and many of us (myself included) are scrambling to try and find other traffic sources to keep our beloved blogs afloat.

I thought it might be helpful to list as many of the ways of driving traffic – other than Google – that I could think of. Below are 11 ideas I’ve tried and/or heard of, and how they’re working for me. If you know of any others that are working for you and you’re willing to share, I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

1. Other Search Engines

It’s easy to forget, but there really are other search engines than Google! I personally switched to using Duck Duck Go in 2024, and many people use Bing because it’s the default on their Microsoft products.

Luckily, there’s not much you need to do to get more traffic from these other search engines; the SEO strategies that used to work to drive Google traffic still work for Bing, Duck Duck Go, and others. As such, you just need to make sure that you are still doing good SEO work (without sacrificing the quality of your blog posts, of course) and you should rank well in other search engines and get whatever traffic they drive you.

2. Facebook

If you’ve spoken to me in the past year about getting traffic, I’ve been pretty much exclusively singing the praises of Facebook; it’s what I spoke about at TBEX in Anchorage, too!

There are lots of ways to get traffic from Facebook to your blog: re-start that Page you’ve been neglecting and build up a strategy of engaging content and link opportunities; start a Facebook group for your niche, and promote your blog posts there; run ads to drive traffic directly to your site, or to grow your Page that then drives traffic to your site.

All around, Facebook is still an active and powerful social media platform that can build your brand and grow your traffic.

3. Instagram

Don’t get me wrong: getting people from Instagram to your blog is hard! But if you can figure it out for your audience, it can still be a solid little traffic source.

The reality is that Instagram has purposely not built tools to drive people off-site, so you’ve gotta work to convince people to leave the Instagram app. The best way is through Instagram story links, which are available for everyone to use. You can also take advantage of the link in your bio and point people to that from captions and stories.

Lastly, you can run Instagram ads to drive traffic to your site, though I haven’t personally tried that to see how effective – or cost-effective – it is.

4. Pinterest

Pinterest is many people’s #2 traffic source after Google; it’s always been a struggle for me, and I have no idea why! In any case, it can be a powerful traffic driver, so even if you’re struggling, I recommend keeping at it with Pinterest as we move into the post-SEO/Google era for our blogs.

I booked a consultation with Connie Terry in late 2024 and she’s been a great help in dialing in a strategy for my niche and supporting me with questions I’ve had afterward. As I had just about given up on Pinterest, I’m excited to recommit in the new year and hopefully see the rewards in a few months as my pins move out into the Pinterest ecosystem and start driving traffic.

(That is not an affiliate link to Connie, it’s just a direct link to book a consult with her because she knows her stuff and is worth it!)

5. LinkedIn

If you can spin your niche into anything B2B (business to business), LinkedIn can be a very powerful traffic driver. I haven’t done this for my own sites as I’m not focused on business (or business travelers), but I know of other bloggers who have been able to do this very effectively.

At the very least, you should make sure your LinkedIn is up to date and links to your blog as one of your professional projects, so that people checking you out there have an opportunity to click to your site!

6. TikTok

I am not on TikTok so I actually have no direct experience driving traffic, but I’ve heard it can be done. (Also, just keep in mind that the U.S. government is currently fighting with ByteDance about banning the app, so you don’t want to get too reliant on this platform in general!)

If you can create engaging short-form videos with a strong call-to-action, you can drive people back to your profile and then they can click the link(s) you have there.

7. Email

Even more than Facebook, I have been hollering about email for a few years now – everyone admits it’s their weak point and they “should do it more” but few people have stepped up, and now you might be feeling it as Google traffic has gone away.

Your email list is one of the most valuable assets you can build. People who subscribe to your newsletter have already shown interest in what you offer, making them more likely to click through to your website.

Commit NOW: start emailing your list weekly! I have ideas for every single week of every month in posts that I update each year. You might also look at my Travel Blogger’s Email Academy if you’re in travel; it’ll help you get welcome sequences and automation set up to drive traffic in addition to your weekly newsletter.

8. YouTube

YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world, making it a fantastic tool for driving traffic. Create valuable videos related to your website’s content, and include links to your site in video descriptions and pinned comments.

This is going to look different for every blogger (you) and every niche (your site), but you don’t have to have a ton of production value to get good viewership and build a following on YouTube, then to drive those people back to your site.

If you want an example, check out my 2025 Alaska Seminar Series – especially the captions to each video. More links equals more opportunities for traffic!

9. Podcasts

Podcasts are still booming, so you might think about how you can take advantage of that. If you’re already considering a YouTube strategy to try and drive traffic, why not take those videos, strip them down to an audio-only format, and release them as a podcast? (This is what I did with the Destination Alaska podcast!)

(Lots of the biggest podcasters are now doing this, since they’ve realized that having both video AND audio channels is the best way to grow a huge audience.)

If you want to have end-to-end control, start your own podcast; otherwise, you could look at becoming a regular guest on podcasts to get links and shout-outs from other established podcasters.

10. Content Syndication

Republish your content on platforms that allow you to reach new audiences while driving traffic back to your site. Here are some places you can do that:

• Medium: Repost blog content or publish original stories with links to your website.
• LinkedIn Articles: Share thought leadership pieces directly on LinkedIn.
• Flipboard: Curate your website content into a magazine to attract readers.

MSN also used to allow content syndication but as of late 2024, I don’t think you can apply for that platform anymore. Syndication can also be a great way to put content out there that might not make sense for your blog, or that underperforms on your blog but makes sense for an audience on one of these platforms.

11. Referral Traffic

We can admit it, right? In the old days, we were all doing things like collab post and guest posts; those drove referral traffic from other blogs to our blogs. These strategies, well, they sort of worked, but honestly they became oversaturated and were often far more work than they ever ended up returning to our sites.

In the new days, here’s a different strategy: link organically to bloggers you know, love, and trust. These could be your fellow blogger friends, or people you just know are super knowledgeable about your niche too.

I like to think of this as good karma: I’ve had bloggers discover my backlinks and come to my site to comment and thank me. (That’s traffic right there!) I like to think that also makes them more likely to link to me too. (Driving even more traffic.)

Of course this needs to be organic and natural – you should be linking to good, high-quality bloggers just like you, people you know are a great resource for your readers too. In an era where it feels like the pie is no longer big enough for all of us (something I used to believe wasn’t true but have even started feeling myself), this is a “pie is big enough” strategy that really can help your site grow and make the web a better, friendlier, more helpful place – no matter what Google tells us our content actually is.

Have you tried any of these methods for driving traffic? Are any of them working for you and your blog? Let me know in the comments below!